Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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Question 818: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of convictions of children for each age between 12 and 18 during the past five years; the nature of offences committed; the number of children dealt with by the use of measures without resorting to judicial proceedings; the nature of the sanctions imposed on convicted children; and the level of recidivism among children who have been dealt with both in non-judicial proceedings and judicial proceedings. [23146/08]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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Much of the information requested by the Deputy is already published and available through relevant Government websites.

Statistics in relation to the use of the Garda Diversion Programme for 2003-2005 are published in the 2005 Annual Report of the Committee to monitor the effectiveness of the Diversion Programme. This report is available on the Irish Youth Justice Service website (www.iyjs.ie). The equivalent statistics for 2006 are included in the report on Garda Recorded Crime Statistics 2003 — 2006 published by the Central Statistics Office in April 2008. This is available through the CSO website (www.cso.ie). While the nature of offences committed by these children is recorded in these reports, a full age-related breakdown of offences is not available. I understand that the 2007 Diversion Programme Report will be available shortly for publication.

Statistics in relation to juvenile crime processed through the District Courts are published in the Courts Service annual reports and are available on the Courts Service website (www.courts.ie) for the years 2000 -2006. The Irish Prison Service annual reports provide statistics related to offences committed by 16-17 year olds who are detained in prison. These reports are available on the Irish Prison Service website (www.irishprisons.ie). Some statistics related to offences committed by children sent to the children detention schools are available on the Children Act Advisory Board website (www.caab.ie).

There are currently no up-to-date statistics available in relation to recidivism among children. In this regard I can inform the Deputy that one of the high level goals in the recently published National Youth Justice Strategy 2008-2010 is "to strengthen and develop information and data sources in the youth justice system to support more effective policies and services". To achieve this objective, the Irish Youth Justice Service, will develop data and promote research on the youth justice system, in liaison with key stakeholders and with the assistance of the academic sector.